Downrigger Buyer's Guide

Downrigger Selection Tool

Answer five quick questions about how you fish and we’ll show you the downriggers that actually fit — with prices and links.

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The Full Buyer’s Guide

Everything you need to decide before you buy — mounting, boom length, cable, weights, and what else you’ll need in the box.

By the crew at Elliott's Tackle & Rigging · Updated August 2026

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First, how a downrigger actually works

If you've never run one, the rest of this guide will make more sense after ninety seconds on the basics. Skip ahead if you already know the drill.

A downrigger is a small winch bolted to your gunwale. It lowers a heavy lead ball on a steel cable to an exact depth, and your fishing line rides down alongside it — held by a clip that lets go when a fish hits. That's the whole idea: your lure fishes at a depth you chose, not wherever the current happens to put it.

In practice:

1. Mount the downrigger to the boat and clamp the weight onto the cable.
2. Let your lure out behind the boat — 20 to 100 feet, depending on how spooky the fish are.
3. Clip your fishing line into the release clip on the downrigger cable, and set the rod in a holder.
4. Lower the ball to your target depth, watching the line counter.
5. Reel your rod tight so the tip bends into an arc toward the water. That arc is your strike indicator.
6. When a fish hits, the clip releases, the rod snaps upright, and you're fighting the fish on a free line — no weight in the way.
7. Retrieve the ball so the cable doesn't tangle with the fish.

Question 1: Will it actually fit my boat?

This is first for a reason. More downrigger purchases go wrong here than anywhere else, and it's the one thing no spec sheet answers for you. Before you look at a single model, go measure.

What to check:

• Gunwale width and thickness — a clamp mount needs a flat lip it can actually grip.
• Rail diameter, if you're mounting to a rail — most rail mounts top out around 1-1/2".
• Whether you can drill — permanent mounts are stronger and cheaper; clamp mounts are removable but limited to lighter units.
• Clearance behind the mount — the boom swings, and on a swivel base it swings a long way.

Then pick a mount type:

See all downrigger mounts →

Question 2: How many do I need?

Most salmon boats end up with two, and there's a reason beyond "more lines in the water."

• One — fine for learning, small boats, or fishing alone. You'll cover one depth at a time.
• Two — the standard setup. Port and starboard, and you can fish two different depths until you find the fish. With a stacker release you can run two rods off each rigger, so two riggers can carry four lines.
• Three or more — wide-beam and charter boats, usually with a third off the transom. Check your local regulations on rod count first.

If budget is tight, one good rigger beats two cheap ones. You can always add the second next season — just buy a model you'd be happy to own a pair of.

Question 3: What boom length?

The boom is the arm that holds the cable away from the boat. Too short and your cable runs into the hull or your riggers tangle with each other. Too long and it's in the way on a small boat.

If you're running two riggers on the same side of the boat, or you plan to stack rods, go long. Blowback pushes cables aft, and short booms are how cables find each other.

Question 4: Electric or manual?

The honest version: manual is fine if you fish shallow, and gets old fast if you don't.

Every time a release trips, every time you check bait, every time you change depth — that's a hand crank. At 30 feet nobody minds. At 150 feet, repeatedly, in a chop, it's the reason people upgrade.

• Choose manual if: you fish under about 80 feet, you're on a smaller boat, you've got crew to crank, or budget is the deciding factor. Manual riggers are simpler, lighter, and there's less to fail.
• Choose electric if: you fish deep, you fish alone or with one other person, or you change depth often. Electrics also carry the features — line counters, auto-stop, bottom tracking on the higher models.

Want the full breakdown? Read Electric vs Manual Downriggers: A Buyer's Guide.

Question 5: Steel cable or braid?

This is the question most guides skip, and it's a real decision with money on both sides. Your downrigger holds a heavy ball at depth — that's a job for stainless cable or high-test braid, not ordinary fishing line.

Stainless steel cable is what most downriggers ship with — Cannon electrics carry 250 ft of 150 lb cable on the Magnums and 400 ft on the Optimums, straight from the factory. It's cheaper, more abrasion-resistant, and on units built for it the cable is part of an electrical system that holds fish nearer your line. Downside: it kinks, it can rust, and a frayed cable will find your hands.

Braid — 200 lb test, roughly the diameter of 30 lb mono — has a much thinner profile for its strength, so it cuts through the water with less drag. Less drag means less blowback, which means your ball hangs closer to straight down and your depth counter tells you something closer to the truth. It doesn't kink, doesn't rust, and you can cut it with a knife if you snag bottom.

What we stock:

• Cable — Scotty 200 ft, 300 ft, 400 ft · Cannon 150 ft, 200 ft, 400 ft
• Braid — Scotty Premium Power Braid 200 lb in 200 ft, 300 ft, 400 ft
• Want braid without the swap? The Scotty 1106-B ships with 200 lb braid already on the spool.

Either way you'll want a terminal kit to finish the end properly.

Question 6: What weight do I need?

The ball is what pulls your gear down, and it's sized against two things: how deep you're fishing and how fast you're trolling. Too light and the whole rig blows back at an angle — your gear is nowhere near the depth on the counter.

⚠ Check your downrigger's rated capacity before you buy a ball. A Scotty Laketroller is rated 2–4 lb and a Cannon Mini-Troll 4 lb — hang an 8 lb ball on either and you have a broken combination, not a deep-water setup. The last column below is the minimum rigger you need.

Fin-style weights like the Cannon Flash Weight (4 lb, 6 lb, 8 lb) track straighter behind the boat than a round ball, which helps at speed.

What else you'll need

A downrigger on its own won't catch you anything. Here's the rest of the kit — most of it inexpensive, all of it necessary.

• A weight — see above. Buy a spare; you will lose one.
• Release clips — the thing that holds your fishing line and lets go on a strike. Cannon Pinch-R, Cannon Offshore Saltwater, or the Scotty Power Grip Plus. Buy several — they wear out.
• Stacker releases — to run two rods off one rigger. Cannon Quick Stacker or Scotty stacker.
• Cable or braid — see Question 5. Spare cable is cheap insurance.
• A snubber — absorbs shock between cable and weight. Scotty 370.
• A boom stop — stops the weight banging the pulley on retrieve. Scotty 378 for 60" booms, 377 for 30".
• A weight retriever — lets you land the ball without hauling it over the gunwale. Scotty 3025, Cannon Retro-Ease.
• A cover — UV and salt spray are what kill downriggers between seasons. Scotty, Cannon.
• An accessory kit — the fastest way to get most of the above at once. Scotty 1158, Scotty 1159, Cannon Terminator Kit.

Browse all downrigger accessories →

Scotty vs Cannon: every model we carry, side by side

Cannon compares Cannon. Scotty compares Scotty. Neither will put the two next to each other — so we have. Specifications below come from each manufacturer's own published data.

Electric downriggers

Reading it: Cannon wins on weight capacity — every electric is rated 20 lb, and every one includes cable and Positive Ion Control. Scotty wins on boom reach, telescoping to a full 60 inches against Cannon's 53, which matters if you're running two riggers a side. Scotty's High Performance range is the only one that pairs a digital counter with a 60" boom.

Manual downriggers

Reading it: the gap is starkest here. Cannon's Uni-Trolls carry 20 lb against Scotty's 10–12 lb, come pre-spooled with 200 ft of cable, and geared 2:1 retrieval means noticeably less cranking. Scotty answers with reach — the 1091 is the only manual here with a 60" boom — and with the cheapest way in, at $78.99 for the Laketroller. If you plan to fish deep on a manual, the capacity numbers point one way.

* Scotty publishes specifications by product family rather than per model. The Depthking's figures are our reading of which family it belongs to — worth confirming with us on the phone if it's the deciding factor.

Our picks, by boat and budget

Every one of these is a rigger we'd put on our own boat. Prices shown are current at the time of writing.

Smallest boats and first-timers

Scotty 1073 Laketroller · Cannon Mini-Troll · Scotty 1071 Laketroller
Compact, clamp or bracket mount, no drilling. Made for small aluminium boats and shallow trolling. You give up depth capacity and a line counter — but this is a genuinely low-cost way to find out whether downrigging is for you.

Best value manual

Scotty 1050 Depthmaster Compact · Cannon Easi-Troll ST · Scotty 1050 Masterpack (mount included)
The sweet spot for most weekend anglers. Proper depth counters, real capacity, and they'll handle 6–8 lb balls. The Masterpack is worth a look if you don't already have a mount — it saves buying one separately.

Serious manual — for anglers who'd rather not go electric

Cannon Uni-Troll 10 · Scotty 1085 Strongarm 30" · Cannon Uni-Troll 5 ST
Geared retrieval that gets line in nearly as fast as an electric, with none of the wiring. If you want one really good manual rather than two cheap ones, this is the tier.

Best manual, no compromises

Scotty 1091 Telescoping 60" Longarm · Cannon Uni-Troll 10 STX-TS
Full 60" reach and swivel bases. At this price you're within reach of an entry electric — worth thinking about which you'd actually rather own.

Entry-level electric

Cannon Magnum 5 · Scotty 1101 Depthpower 30"
The cheapest way to stop cranking. Shorter booms, so best as a single rigger or on a narrower boat. If you're running two a side, step up to a 60".

The workhorse — most salmon boats end up here

Scotty 1106 Depthpower 60" · Cannon Magnum 10 · Scotty 1106-B (braid included)
Telescoping 60" boom, rod holder, swivel base, and enough motor for 8–10 lb balls at depth. Buy a pair of these and you have a complete salmon setup. The 1106-B saves you buying braid separately if that's the direction you're going.

Running two rods per rigger

Scotty 1116 Propack
Ships with dual rod holders, so one rigger carries two rods without buying holders separately. Two of these covers four lines.

Saltwater and heavy use

Scotty 2106 HP · Scotty 2106B HP · Scotty 2116 HP · Cannon Magnum 10 TS
Stainless booms and higher-performance drives. If you fish salt regularly, the corrosion resistance is the point — this is the tier that survives a decade of Pacific Northwest seasons.

Top of the range

Cannon Optimum 10 BT · Cannon Optimum 10 TS BT
Bluetooth connectivity, bottom tracking, depth automation. Genuinely more capability, and genuinely more to go wrong — worth it if you fish hard and often, hard to justify for a dozen trips a year.

Buying a pair

Cannon Optimum 10 BT 2-Pack w/Covers · Optimum 10 TS BT 2-Pack w/Covers
Covers included, and cheaper than two singles.

All electric downriggers → · All manual downriggers →

Five mistakes to avoid

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need one downrigger or two?

Two is the standard setup on most salmon boats, because it lets you fish two depths at once until you find where the fish are holding. One is perfectly workable for learning, for smaller boats, or when fishing alone. If budget is limited, buy one good downrigger rather than two cheap ones — and choose a model you would be happy to own a matched pair of, so you can add the second later.

What size downrigger weight should I use?

Match the weight to your depth and trolling speed. Around 4 lb suits shallow work under 50 feet, 6 lb covers most trolling between 50 and 100 feet, and 8 lb or heavier is standard once you are fishing past 100 feet or trolling faster. If you fish a range of depths, choose the heavier ball — a heavy weight still works shallow, but a light weight will not hold depth deep, and the resulting blowback means your gear runs well above the depth shown on your counter.

Should I use steel cable or braid on my downrigger?

Both work. Stainless cable is cheaper and more abrasion-resistant, and it is what most downriggers ship with. Braid rated around 200 lb has a much thinner profile for its strength, so it produces less drag and less blowback, giving you a more accurate depth reading. Braid also will not kink or rust and can be cut with a knife if you snag bottom. The one caution is that some electric downriggers use the steel cable as part of an electrical or positive-ion system, and switching those to braid disables that feature — check your model's manual first.

Will any downrigger mount fit my boat?

No, and this is worth checking before you order anything. Mounts are specific to the manufacturer, so a Scotty base will not accept a Cannon downrigger. Beyond that, the mount has to suit your boat: clamp mounts need a flat gunwale lip and only suit lighter manual units, rail mounts typically fit rails up to about an inch and a half, and gimbal mounts require an existing rod-holder gimbal. High gunwales may also need a riser so the boom clears the rail. Measure first, or call us with your boat details.

What boom length do I need on my downrigger?

A short boom of roughly 23 to 30 inches suits small boats, tight cockpits and single-downrigger setups. A 60-inch boom, or a telescoping model that extends to 60 inches, is the better choice on a wider beam, when running two downriggers on the same side, or when stacking rods — the extra reach keeps cables apart as blowback pushes them aft. Telescoping booms are the most flexible option because you can retract them at the dock.

What else do I need to buy with a downrigger?

A downrigger alone cannot fish. At minimum you need a weight, at least one release clip, and a mount if one is not included. Most anglers also add a snubber to absorb shock between cable and weight, a boom stop to protect the pulley on retrieve, a weight retriever, spare cable or braid, and a cover for the off-season. Budget roughly another $80 to $150 on top of the downrigger itself, or look at an accessory kit which bundles most of these together.

Downrigger Buyer's Guide · v3.1.0 · August 2026 · elliottstackleandrigging.com